The Rancher
by CaptainOfTheRainbowShip
Summary: The family ranch is being run by Arizona and her brother Tim. When a teenage boy comes looking for a job, it's his sister that captures the blonde's unwavering attention. Let the southern charm work its' magic
1. Chapter 1

**A/N. Yes, I am starting another story. I am literal garbage, but this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I hope you enjoy, this is somewhat of a small town AU with AZ as a rancher and Carina as a general practitioner.**

The sun was beating down on her body relentlessly. Sweat dripping down her face and making its' way in her eyes. She wiped it away with the dirty rag she always had on her while she was working. The crate of supplies was put down with an irritated huff. She loved working on her family's ranch, she really did, but the sun and the physically taxing labour was not something she particularly enjoyed.

The last of the supplies was made quick work of, after she had completed her task she stood in the slight breeze and closed her eyes, a peaceful look taking over. This was what she enjoyed most. The feeling of home and belonging she had always felt on her family's ranch. It had been in the family for generations already. Her great-great something grandfather had started way back in the day and all the generations had decided to work there. She hadn't been obligated to take over from her father, seeing as her older brother had already made his intentions to take over clear. But there wasn't anywhere else she could see herself. This was where she belonged. She called these five thousand acres home. So, her brother had agreed to take over together. They were fifty-fifty partners and all decisions were to be made together or not at all. After that deal had been made, they both had built houses on the property. Arizona had called a contractor to help her build her farmhouse with wraparound porch, Tim decided to build his little hunter lodge all by himself. Their parents still lived in the colonial era house that had been on the property for nearly a century, her father had kept it in great shape for as long as she could remember.

"Arizona! It's time for dinner, come and wash up!" Her mother called from the house, snapping the blonde out of her musings. She quickly made her way up to the house, being hungry from all the work she had been doing all day. When she came into her parental home, she saw her brother going over the finances. He had studied Finances at the local college, already knowing he would need it if he wanted to run the ranch. The blonde trusted him explicably with it, since he had taken over the finances their turnover had nearly doubled. Demand was growing and they had decided they needed a ranch hand pretty soon, it was becoming too much for just the two of them.

She shed her red flannel shirt and walked into the kitchen, kissing her mother on the cheek when she passed her at the stove. The artisanal lavender soap made her think of her youth when she smelled it. Her mother had been buying it since Arizona had been five and dragged the older woman to the soap stand at the famers market.

Her mother made a disapproving noise when the blonde was deep in thought instead of washing her hands to get ready for dinner. Arizona ginned and quickly washed her hands and splashed some cold water in her face to cool down. She dried off and put her cowboy hat on the hat rack, knowing her mother would not allow her at the table with it on.

"You know the rules, Tim." She said in a sing-song voice. "No one is allowed hats at the table, not even dad has the privilege." She snatched the worn hat from her brother's head, and putting it right next to hers on the stand. Tim hummed and pulled a hand through his messy hair before grinning up at her. "I know, Zona. Ma would rip me to shreds before I even had a chance to take a bite of her lovely casserole." He said with his southern drawl. The entire family had it, many girls Arizona had been with found it incredibly charming. His compliment didn't go unnoticed by their mother, who came into the dining room with a soft grin on her face, loving the fact that she was still able to feed her two children almost every night. "For that," She said. "You get a second helping of desert."

Arizona began to protest.

"And you, dear, get a second helping if you get your father from the shed in time for dinner. Which is in five minutes."

The blonde stood with a slight grin and raced towards the front door, not at all behaving like the twenty-seven-year-old woman she actually was.

Her dad was in the shed, working on some old motorbike he had bought a few weeks ago. Her mother had protested vehemently, but her father had reasoned that he needed something to do now that he was retired. It was either that, or he would bug her constantly in the kitchen. The decision had been swiftly made.

"Come on, Da. It's time for dinner."

She was grateful for her family.

 **-\/-**

Every morning, she would wake up around six in the morning. She made her morning smoothie which consisted of an absurdly high number of different fruits, and after that she went on her morning run. They normally lasted thirty minutes, unless she wasn't feeling it. In that case she cut her losses after twenty minutes and spent longer in the shower.

When she was done with her morning routine, she grabbed a flannel and her cowboy hat and made her way to Tim's little lodge to go through the to-do list of that day. They would drink some coffee and then they would go to work. Their mother would come by to bring them their lunches and chat for a little bit. After that, it was working until five pm.

Only today, it didn't go that way exactly. At around four o'clock, she noticed that a young man was on their property, walking towards her with his hat in his hand. She quickly texted Tim to meet her at the barn ASAP and put her stuff away.

"Ehm… Hello." The boy said nervously, Arizona noticed he couldn't be older than sixteen, he still had some baby fat on his face, but his form had filled out already. He looked strong she remarked in her head.

"Howdy." She replied drily, watching him gulp nervously before taking a calming breath.

"My name is Andrew. Andrew DeLuca. I saw an advertisement in town that said you needed a help around the ranch. I was here to inform about the job." Arizona's eyebrows rose. This wasn't a glamorous job, and she was definitely surprised such a young boy would choose manual labour.

"You could have called, you know? We put the number in the advertisement. Anyway, I'm Tim and this Arizona, we're the owners." Came the voice from her right. She looked over and saw her brother come over with a kind look on his face.

"My father always taught me that you had to do such things in person, it means you're serious about committing to the job." The blonde chose not to mention the use of past tense. It wasn't any of her business.

"That's a good lesson." She said instead. "Yes we could use a hand around here. Mostly for maintenance, repairing fences, lugging around hale bays, sometimes help us feed the animals." The boy, Andrew, nodded vigorously. "But I have to ask, why do you want this job?"

Andrew looked nervous again. "Well… My sister is working way too much just to support us, and I want to help her, make the burden a little lighter."

Tim smiled brightly, this kid sounded like his kind of guy.

"Welcome then. Come on in so we can write up a contract." He said while motioning to their parents' house. They boy followed with a grateful smile.

 **A/N. Hope you enjoyed, leave a review with your thoughts and feelings and I'll see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

For all the doubt Arizona had when they first hired Andrew, he proved to be a hardworking young man, committed to the job. Every day that week, he came to the ranch after school was let out. He always worked hard to complete the chores they had given him, and he was polite the whole time. Saturday, he had worked the entire day, Barbara was happy to give him some lunch when she went to give her children theirs. He had sat down at the barn with Arizona, the blonde had been teaching him about handling cattle that afternoon. She asked him about her sister.

"Her name is Carina." He said with a smile, the blonde could see the respect and love the boy held for his sister. "When Carina was little, our parents moved here from Italy. My dad had a position with an international business and they transferred him here. My sister's eleven years older than I am, and she's the doctor here now. Our parents died in a car crash last year." He was struggling now, so Arizona wrapped her arm around his shoulder, trying to give him some silent support. "It took a really long time to get all their affairs in order and sell the house. After all that was taken care of, we moved here. I realised I wasn't really cut out for living in a big city, so Carina found this place for us. She could still be a doctor, and I would feel comfortable. I want to have a ranch just like this when I get older, that's what I was meant to be."

Arizona nodded, she knew what it was like to know what you wanted to be at a young age and all the people who just thought you were going through a phase, wanting to be a rancher.

"Come on," She spoke up after a while, standing straight and dusting herself off. "If we finish this in the next couple of hours, you can stay for dinner." He wanted to speak up, "No Andrew, you wouldn't be a burden, I wouldn't have asked if you were. Call your sister and tell her she can have the evening for herself, tell her she should relax for a bit."

The boy gave her a grateful smile and walked a few feet away to call his sister.

When he was done with updating his sibling, he came back with a huge grin on his face. "Thank you for inviting me, Carina sounded really tired, so I'm glad that I can give her a night off." Arizona just gave him a kind smile, she was starting to realise he just wanted the best for the older sister that cared for him. She motioned over to the barn that housed the cows, wanting to get on with learning him about all the cattle needed on a farm.

Dinner was a lovely affair that evening, her mother had gone overboard when she found out that Andrew was joining them. She had cooked double the amount of food she'd normally make, claiming she'd give the leftovers to Andrew to take home. The boy just politely smiled and had the brain to not say anything about it. He ate all of the food Barbara put in front of him and complimented her cooking, claiming it to be the best he'd had in a while. The older woman glowed with pride after that comment.

While they were having dinner, Tim asked Andrew if he could come into work tomorrow too. They were getting a new bull, seeing as the one they had now was getting too old to get the cows pregnant. And if they weren't pregnant, they couldn't produce milk. It would be getting hectic on the farm tomorrow and they wanted Andrew to help around and learn about the use of bulls at a ranch. The boy quickly agreed before finishing his dinner, her mother had already served desert.

The next day, Andrew came in at the promised time. Tim sent him to do some chores before the bull was released into his new pasture, he had to do some repairs on a couple of the fences around the property. He quickly stared his task, eager to see the new bull as soon as possible. While he was busy, the bull finally arrived. Arizona and Tim made the truck driver back up into the pasture and carefully released the bull. He was agitated from the drive and made his displeasure known, though he wasn't volatile yet.

Arizona grabbed her new walkie-talkie from her belt and turned it to the channel Andrew was on. "Hey buddy, once you're done with the fences we have your new friend set up in his home." She heard an excited noise coming from the other side of the line. She saw the speck of Andrew come running from the fence he had been working on. He was too excited to keep track of which pasture he took a shortcut through. Arizona saw the accident in the making.

"Tim!" She screamed at her brother. "Grab the tranquilizing gun, now!" She didn't wait for her brother, instead she leapt over the fence and began running towards the bull, which had now noticed that Andrew had entered his new territory. Arizona's heart began to pound in her ears, she had begun to see Andrew as somewhat of a little brother. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that she would let him get hurt, not on her watch.

She quickly reached Andrew, who had now realised his mistake and stood completely still, knowing that the bull would attack if he made any sudden movements. When Arizona called out, he sagged in relief, but not for long as he knew that the bull was going to undoubtedly attack Arizona now. The bull faced away from the young boy and turned towards the blonde, blowing air through his nose angrily. He scraped his hoof against the ground, before charging at Arizona. The blonde, for her part, stood still, without a trace of fear on her face.

Tim had come running up with the tranquilizer gun aimed at the bull, but he wasn't fast enough as the bull barrelled through Arizona with a loud crack, probably breaking something. The blonde fell to the ground, the instant pain knocking her out cold.

Tim quickly shot the bull with a tranquilizing dart, not giving it a chance to attack his baby sister again.

They moved quickly after that. Andrew ran to get one of the boards they had used that weekend to patch some of the walls in the barn, it wasn't ideal but they couldn't risk moving Arizona if something had damaged her back. They moved her onto it and ran towards the big truck, sliding her into bed of it. Tim went to sit next to her and threw the keys to Andrew, the boy had already gotten his driver's license.

He drove them into town as quickly, but safely as possible. It took them ten minutes to get to the doctor's office, now manned by Andrew's sister after the previous doctor had retired. They rushed her into the practice and into the exam room, where Carina was just finishing up some paperwork. At that point, Arizona had woken up again and was in agonizing pain. She was squirming on the board, holding her messed up shoulder.

Carina looked confused for a moment when she saw her brother, but quickly went into doctor mode at seeing the beautiful woman in pain.

"Okay, you two out, now." Tim wanted to protest but the Italian-born woman wasn't having it. "I can't help her to the best of my capabilities if you crowd around here. Get out." The man didn't put up a fight anymore and went out of the exam room.

"Carina, you have to do right by her. She saved me, it would be me on that table if she hadn't come between me and the bull." The teenager had a serious look on his face, looking older than the sixteen summers he had seen.

She nodded and shooed him out of the room. She called her nurse into the room, needing the assistance to keep the beautiful blonde still. "Maggie, I need you to grab me a morphine drip and some scissors, also get her brother to get some clothes for her." The darker skinned woman nodded and quickly grabbed the painkillers needed to knock the woman out.

"Arizona, listen to me." Carina said once she had hooked up the IV and had the scissors in hand. "I'm going to cut your shirt off. You have a dislocated shoulder, I need to set it. You don't have any other serious injuries, only some bruises and a sprained ankle from landing on it badly. Let the painkillers take effect." The blonde just nodded, already a little woozy from the morphine. The last thing she remembered before the combination of the pain and drugs knocked her out, was how pretty the new doctor seemed to be.

When she woke up, she was still lying in the exam room. A blanket was draped over her and she saw that the good doctor was sitting at her computer, updating some files.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out except for a groan, which alerted Carina that her patient had regained consciousness.

She quickly stood from her seat and made her way over with concerned eyes. She intercepted the blonde's hand that almost pulled at the stiches that kept the cut above her eyebrow together.

"You shouldn't pull at your stitches, you'll scar." She smiled fondly at the blonde. "Thank you for saving my brother, we only have each other left." She grabbed some clothes that lied at the foot of the bed. "Let me help you into some clean clothes and then I can send you home."

The drugs weren't affecting the blonde anymore, and she realized she hadn't said anything to the beautiful doctor.

"I only did what any decent person would do, but I guess I should say you're welcome either way." The blonde tried to put her most charming grin on her face, she had the feeling that this was a woman she couldn't just pass up on. "But if you really want to thank me, let me take you out to dinner when I get some of my mobility back."

The brunette blushed but still nodded. "You have yourself a deal, I look forward to it. But I should really get you home, come on."

 **A/N. Yay! They met! Look forward to lots an lots of fluff, seeing as that is the only thing I manage to write. Even if I wanted to write angst, at approximately 400 words in, it's tooth-rotting fluff. Anyway, leave a review and I'll see you next time!**


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